Friday, April 15, 2011

THE ROAD OF LOST INNOCENCE by Somaly Mam

Synopsis:

The horror and violence perpetrated on young girls to feed the sex trade industry in southeast Asia is personalized in this graphic story. Of mixed race, Khmer and Phnong, Mam is living on her own in the forest in northern Cambodia around 1980 when a 55-year-old stranger claims he will take her to her missing family. Grandfather beats and abuses the nine-year-old Mam and sells her virginity to a Chinese merchant to cover a gambling debt. She is subsequently sold into a brothel in Phnom Penh, and the daily suffering and humiliation she endures is almost impossible to imagine or absorb (I was dead. I had no affection for anyone). She recounts recalcitrant girls being tortured and killed, and police collusion and government involvement in the sex trade; she manages to break the cycle only when she discovers the advantages of ferengi (foreign) clients and eventually marries a Frenchman. She comes back to Cambodia from France, now unafraid, and with her husband, Pierre; sets up a charity, AFESIP, action for women in distressing circumstances; and fearlessly devotes herself to helping prostitutes and exploited children. The statistics are shocking: one in every 40 Cambodian girls (some as young as five) will be sold into sex slavery. Mam brings to the fore the AIDS crisis, the belief that sex with a virgin will cure the disease and the Khmer tradition of women's obedience and servitude. This moving, disturbing tale is not one of redemption but a cry for justice and support for women's plight everywhere.

This is not a book I feel I can review, I prefere to send you to Somaly Mam's website where you can find out much more. It is so difficult for me to understand how a parent can sell a daughter into prostitution, girls as young as 4-5.........This wonderful human being is one of the strongest woman I have ever heard about.

1 comment:

I have heard so much of this book, but I haven't been able to put my hands on it yet. I hope that this book won't be dumped in the cathegory of thirld-world crap, you know, the kind of books you read to cry over other people's sorrows.

Translate

Google+ Followers

Books to Review

My Reading Buddy "Oliver"

My Favorite Movies

Blog Archive

About Me

Born in Paris, France to an American mother (Boston) and a French father (Paris). I was raised in Zurich, Swizerland, Paris, France and Monaco. Then on to the States. I have 3 sons, one born in Nice, France, one born in San-Francisco, California and the last one in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania. My passions are reading in several languages, photography, movies, my Jack Russell "Oliver", he is the BEST! truly a girl's best friend!!